So it’s come to this. After losing two straight games in Boston and having their backs shoved up against the wall, the Los Angeles Lakers are fresh off a series-tying blowout and one home win away from defending their NBA championship. One win away from getting Kobe one for the thumb and Phil getting #11. One win away from Derek Fisher going into the history books as one of the greatest clutch players ever. One win away from Andrew Bynum being legendarily gutsy instead of infamously brittle. One win away from all of it.

What do the Lakers need to do tonight to make it all happen? Here are a few thoughts:

–Put points on the board early

Boston’s defense leads to its offense. Hence, Los Angeles’ offense leads to its defense. When Boston can induce turnovers and long misses that lead to fast-breaks, they’re deadly. When they have to go to a pick-and-roll set for Rondo or an ISO for Pierce, they can be stopped. In game six, the Lakers scored 28 points in the first quarter, and the Celtics never recovered.

The Lakers don’t need to establish anything in particular early: they just need to score points. Kobe Bryant started off game six red-hot, and that was the catalyst for the ensuing Laker blowout. He should start out looking for his shot the exact same way in game seven. Late-game dramatics would in a Finals Game 7 are what everyone expects from Kobe, but what he does in the first quarter may actually end up being just as important.

-Attack the boards

Boston doesn’t have Perkins. This much we know. What that does not mean is that the Lakers should try and force-feed Andrew Bynum; Boston’s backup centers are scrappy defenders, and Bynum has almost no lift left on that knee. What Bynum does give the Lakers is a degree of size and toughness that can hurt the Celtics, particularly on the glass. The Lakers need to get inside, scramble the Boston defense, and use their size to snag caroms when Boston is out of position.

The rebounding numbers from game six were almost as ugly as the final score: 52-39 in favors of the Lakers, and it was a lot worse early. The team that has won the rebounding battle has won every game in this series. If the Lakers can keep track of Rondo and fight for every rebound, they should be able to control the glass in game seven.

–Make Pierce, Garnett, and Rondo work for their points

They say this about every superstar, but it’s particularly true for three of Boston’s big four. (Ray Allen always works for his points, which is why he can go 0-13.) They need to stop Rondo in transition and keep KG from running the floor with him. Don’t let KG sneak backdoor and catch the lob for an alley-oop or a layup. Don’t let Pierce trail the break for threes, bite on his pump fakes, or let him saunter into the lane with that slow-motion crossover.

If they force Rondo to go to free-throw line jumpers or tough floaters, KG to turnarounds from the post, and Pierce to mid-range jumpers off the dribble, the Lakers will be fine. They just need to keep Boston’s big four from playing off of one another and becoming more than the sum of their talents.

–Get Pau Gasol playing like the best big man in basketball

Gasol wasn’t a machine on the blocks in game six, but he did a great job running the floor and crashing the boards to get his points. Gasol needs to take that energy and add some confidence to it; he’s more than capable of running the offense from the high post and scoring on KG on the blocks. If he can do it in game one and the regular season, he can do it in game seven. Pau needs to realize he’s 48 minutes away from never being called “Gasoft” again by some ill-informed NBA fan.

–Role players: Confident with the lead, smart if it’s close

The Lakers need to pour it on if they have the chance. If the ball is moving, Boston is on their heels, and Ron Artest or any other role player has an open three, he should let fly and take the roof off the building. If the Lakers are down or it’s close, he has to get the ball to the money players, contribute with his energy and defense, and only shoot when necessary. The Lakers won’t win playing one-on-five, but taking the ball out of Kobe’s hands when he needs it is a recipe for catastrophe.

There you have it — if the Lakers do all those things and a few more, the old NBA champs will be your new NBA champs. Only a few hours left until we get to see if they can pull it off or not.

A statement released Wednesday by the NFL and NBA clubs says their 90-year-old owner is resting comfortably at Ochsner Medical Center, a hospital which also serves as a major sponsor and which owns naming rights to the teams’ training headquarters.

Benson has owned the New Orleans Saints since 1985 and bought the New Orleans Pelicans in 2012.

In recent years, Benson has overhauled his estate plan so that his third wife, Gayle, would be first in line to inherit control of the two major professional franchises.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he’d be surprised if Kawhi Leonard played again this season, a stark reversal from just a month ago. Back then, even while announcing Leonard was out indefinitely with a quad injury, the San Antonio coach said Leonard wouldn’t miss the rest of the season.

After spending 10 days before the All-Star break in New York consulting with a specialist to gather a second opinion on his right quad injury, All-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard bears the burden of determining when he’s prepared to play again, sources told ESPN.

Leonard has been medically cleared to return from the right quad tendinopathy injury, but since shutting down a nine-game return to the Spurs that ended Jan. 13, he has elected against returning to the active roster, sources said.

The uncertainty surrounding this season — and Leonard’s future which could include free agency in the summer of 2019 — has inspired a palpable stress around the organization, league sources said.

At first glance, this sounds like Derrick Rose five years ago. Even after he was cleared to play following a torn ACL, the then-Bulls star remained mysterious about when he’d suit up. His confidence in his physical abilities seemed to be a major issue, and he was never the same player since (suffering more leg injuries).

But the Spurs famously favor resting players to preserve long-term health. They seem unlikely to rush back Leonard. They might even sit players who want to play more often. And Leonard isn’t Rose.

Still, it’s clear something is amiss in San Antonio. Maybe not amiss enough to end Leonard’s tenure there, but the longer this lingers, the more time for tension to percolate.

The dunk-contest scoring system – five judges ranking dunks on a scale of 6-10 – is plenty flawed. There should have been a larger difference between the Smith and Victor Oladipo dunks the Dallas point guard mentioned. But Oladipo didn’t advance, either. Personally, I thought the right two players – eventual-winner Donovan Mitchell and runner-up Larry Nance Jr. – advanced.

If Dennis had made it to the finals, Cole was going to throw him the alley-oop. But then the plan was, he was going to throw him the oop, Dennis would dunk it, and then Cole would catch the ball, and then he’d dunk it too. That was going to be the ill, craziest dunk-contest use of a prop or a person ever. But we never got to saw it, because they were holding out until the final round. They didn’t want to bring it out in the first round.

This certainly would have been unprecedented and cool. But unless Smith had something amazing planned for the alley-oop, the best element would have been Cole dunking. That would have upstaged Smith, who’s presumably the one being judged.

For what it’s worth, Cole can dunk. We’ve seen it in the celebrity game: